


Don't Fall For It

by glenpaw



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fake Relationship, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2019-11-23 16:37:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18154355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glenpaw/pseuds/glenpaw
Summary: How a really, really bad day turned into a really, really good ruse.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> This is my first time posting anything so I hope you guys like it. It's going to be a really slow burn, so hang tight. I will be trying to post once a week but that may turn into every fortnight. Feel free to leave comments and kudos if you like it!

** Chapter 1 **

 

“Yes, I spent my holidays with family and then, of course, family friends at the World Cup,” I heard Jade drawl on, her whiny voice carrying over the chatter in the great hall, “and that’s when Ash asked me to be his girlfriend!”

My heart dropped. Ash, the very same Ash that I had been seeing in secret…. had asked someone else out?

* * *

 

 Sitting with my motley crew of friends, I was excited to be going back to Hogwarts. Everyone was chattering away, mostly about what had happened at the World Cup, the appearance of Death Eaters and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s mark. I was one of the only ones who hadn’t been there – my family couldn’t get tickets.

“It’s no wonder they showed up – Black must have found a way to get them all together and past security. After all, he’s fooled the Ministry for this long,” my long-time friend Nora said while reading the Daily Prophet. She, of course, was the Ravenclaw out of our Motley crew and I knew she would have been researching every newspaper, tabloid and article she could get her hands on to find out what happened. She too had not been at the World Cup, but unlike me, she hadn't wanted to. She had more interest in books than a broom.

“Even then, it’s concerning. Dad’s been snowed under at work, the whole Ministry is in overdrive,” countered Dianna, “though of course, he won’t let on about anything. “None of your concern,” he says, “won’t matter to our family anyway.” He forgets my friends aren’t all pureblood like us….”

Dianna was from a pure blood, old wizarding family that claimed to be descended from Godric himself – naturally, this put Dianna in Gryffindor. Luckily, unlike many pure-blooded families, hers were more accepting of those who weren’t pure-blooded. That didn’t stop her parents from being elitist about it though – especially her father. Still, whenever they met me and my family they were kind and didn’t sneer, which was more then I could say about many pure-blooded families. Most would sneer at my muggleborn father…

The conversation was then interrupted by the trolley lady, “Anything from the trolley dears?”

Markus, who had been quiet otherwise – probably scheming up more grand pranks to compete with the Weasley twins – suddenly jumped up, and soon the whole carriage we were in looked like Honeydukes. Markus, another Gryffindor, might as well have sugar for blood with the number of sweets he ate. Of course, he also had a big sweet spot for a certain book-loving someone, not that he would ever let on. I giggled as Dianna and Nora got into a competition on who could find the worst Bertie Botts Bean and Markus started chasing after a chocolate frog had gone loose.

It was a couple of hours until the head boy came around and told us to get into our robes for Hogwarts since we’d be arriving soon. Markus left for the boy’s bathrooms and Dianna, Nora and I pulled the curtains and got changed. It wasn’t long before we were on the carriages, being guided up to the castle.

During the feast, Dumbledore announced the Triwizard tournament and that we would be joined soon by visiting students from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang – along with the 17 year age restriction, met by many a groan and curse – and the hall could chatter about nothing else for the remainder of the feast.

After the feast, I said my goodbyes to the group and started heading towards the Hufflepuff dormitories. I was almost there when I overheard some Slytherin’s giggling and gossiping about their holidays. Ugh.

“Yes, I spent my holidays with family and then of course we joined family friends at the World Cup,” I heard Jade drawl on, her whiny voice carrying over the chatter that bounced around the dungeons, “and that’s when Ash asked me to be his girlfriend!”

My heart dropped. Ash, the very same Ash that I had been seeing in secret…. had asked someone else out?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Following my heart’s lead, my stomach dropped and all of a sudden, I felt dizzy. Surely, I had heard wrong. Surely, he wouldn’t have asked anyone out, especially HER. Not after we…not after that night. I tried not to let on that I heard anything and quickened my pace, rushing through the Hufflepuff dormitory and to my room. Picking up a pen and paper, I quickly wrote;

                                    Ash ,

                                    Meet me tonight. 11pm. Astronomy Tower.

                                                                                                            -J

My owl, Gertie, was sitting next to my bed. I gave her the letter and she flew back through the common rooms.  Meanwhile, I began to pace….

 _________________________________________________________________

It was three weeks before school would finish for the year and I found myself once again in a broom closet with Ash, making out and enjoying the feeling of his hands running up the sides of my thighs. This had been a common routine for months now, alongside winks across the food hall and sly comments that no one could hear. Often, these came soon before I would be dragged into a deserted archway, classroom or broom closet by the “Slytherin stud”, as his fangirls called him.   

“C’mon babe…I promise it won’t hurt or anything. It only does if you’re not relaxed…or turned on, though we know around me that’s not an issue” Ash finished, with a wink.

I blushed, the thought that Ashton Bulstrode, one of the most sought-after guys in our grade wanted to sleep with me…of course, I should have expected it. We had been sneaking into broom closets and hidden corners for the better half of the year, making out and sometimes more.

“Babe? You know it would mean the world to me, my special girl doing this for me…”

I blushed again.

“I…okay. You can’t tell anyone though…same as usual, okay?”

“My lips are sealed babe. Now…come here” he growled, pulling me closer.

After that night, I felt like I had reached the stars and for the next three weeks, I could barely contain my grin or the bubbly feeling that had emerged. Luckily, not one of my friends took a second thought to it – exams were done, why wouldn’t I be happy?

 ________________________________________________________________

The clock in our dormitory room tick, tock, ticking was just making me more anxious. I was about to confront Ash about….what? We were never really official, everything we did was always top secret but he had said we were special. If we had something special, why in the world would he have asked Jade to be his girlfriend? Was it convenience? Or, I hated to think it…had I been?

Finally, the clock hit 10:45 and I left the Hufflepuff common room, making my way carefully up to the Astronomy tower. I knew Filch and the Prefects routes pretty well by now – between helping Markus with his hare-brained schemes and sneaking around with Ash I had a fair amount of experience by now. I slipped behind one of the walls pretending to be doors to avoid Tristan, one of the Slytherin prefects, then made my way up the Astronomy stairs to find Ash leaning on the telescope casually. He came over to be, stroking my hair back. I stepped back, leaving him looking confused. “Babe? What’s wrong, got cold feet again? No one’s here…”

“Jade, huh? Please tell me she wasn’t telling the truth, you and her aren’t dating?”

“W-where’d you hear that?” he said, chuckling awkwardly.

“She was telling – no, boasting to all of her friends on the way to the common rooms.”

 He simply sighed. I could feel the dread prickling in my skin, my stomach tied in knots. “So it’s true?” I tried to say without betraying any sense of emotion. The crackle in my voice I hoped hadn’t given me away.

“Yeah, it’s true. What does it matter though? We could just…continue”

“Continue what? What we were? While you’re the boyfriend of some other girl??”

“I mean…we weren’t anything…just, friends with benefits.”

I suppose I should have, at this point, yelled at him, cried, screamed anything. All I could manage was “Really?”

He nodded.

“You didn’t seriously think I could ever date a half blood, even if your Mum is from a prominent family? Did you?”

_Silence._

“Huh….I guess you were just too naïve to realise” his voice went dark at the last sentence. The tears I was holding back stung at my eyes as I watched him shift to look me dead in the eyes. “Look, you’re a great lay but…that’s all you are. Nothing special.”

With that, he walked away, down the stairs and back to his common room where I knew Jade would be awaiting him eagerly, keen to show off that she had managed to get the most wanted boy in the grade. I waited only until the footsteps were gone before allowing the tears that had threatened to come out roll down my cheeks. That was that. I had gone and given my everything to a boy who thought I was nothing special. Maybe I should have listened to my Mums advice about boys; don’t bother with them, they’ll only disappoint you. I slowly sat against the wall I had been nearest and curled my knees up to my chest, my body racking with the sobs that were engulfing my body.

After what felt like a lifetime, the tears dried up, yet I still sat there, looking up at the stars in peace. I knew that tomorrow, I would have to act like everything was normal, act like I wasn’t feeling crushed, hide what had happened from my friends. I hadn’t told any of them that I had been see-well, hooking up with Ash. That I had been his dirty little secret.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! 
> 
> Obviously I don't own any of the recognisable characters from the Harry Potter Franchise, they are the property of J.K. Rowling. All OC's are my own


	3. Chapter 3

The peace I had almost started to enjoy was broken by a “shit, someone’s already here George”  
I quickly looked up, recognising the tall, red-headed boy. Attractive, popular, almost always laughing. Well, he was one of two of course…I could tell the two apart but I had never learnt which of them was really Fred and really George, since they joked about it so much. Right now, that didn’t matter. Neither of them were people I’d have on the top of my list to see tonight, having just been…well, discarded as I was and with my face betraying the fact I had just been crying. It felt like fate really felt like tormenting me tonight… First night back and I had already been betrayed, now the person that was standing at the top of the Astronomy tower was none other than one of the Weasley twins, who I had been dragged into a prank war with. I wondered for a second whether they would actually know who I was and if they knew the involvement I had in the last prank…  
He peered at me, trying to figure out who I was in the shadows. I realised my hair was probably covering enough of my face to hide who I- “Jolene?”  
Nevermind. I didn’t look up, partially to try and avoid confirming my identity and partially to try and avoid showing my tear-stained, puffy eyed face. What I didn’t expect was the footsteps coming towards me and a gentle hand lifting up my chin, making me look at him. What I also didn’t expect was how concerned his eyes were, nor how soft his hands were…  
“What are you doing up here, after curfew…and…sad?”  
“I’m not sad.”   
“Alright…well…the other two then?”  
“Does it really matter? I can get out of the way for whatever prank you guys are planning…”   
I peered over at the other one, who was fiddling with the end of the telescope. I was curious, but it was better not to know what Fred and George were doing. I couldn’t be dragged into their plots that way, plus I knew Markus definitely would not approve. I could already hear him ragging me at the breakfast table about how Hufflepuffs were meant to be loyal and how much of a traitor I was. Pranking at Hogwarts was serious business, especially if you had accidentally gotten involved with a prank war between Gryffindors. As much as I loved my Gryffindor friends, they had far too much pride about these things.   
He shook his head. “We can do it with you here, well, as long as you won’t tell. Don’t worry, I won’t tell you exactly what we’re doing. After all,” he said with a cheeky grin, “I can’t give away our immeasurable pranking genius.”  
I snorted, cracking a slight smile. He smiles, still watching me carefully while I heard rustling in the background. I won’t lie- I was intrigued, nonetheless, I was committed to staying out of the trouble that they would undoubtably be in tomorrow.   
“I don’t fancy being a witness to be called upon tomorrow” I said half-jokingly, putting on my brave, ‘I’m okay’ face and he just nodded, eyes flitting over my face trying to read my expressions. Good luck buddy, even Nora, my childhood best friend, couldn’t read me if I didn’t want her too. I brushed past him and walked to the stairs, ignoring the fact that I could feel his eyes on me with every step. “Careful,” I hear him call “Filch is on his kitchen rounds.”   
I nod and make my way back to my dormitory, taking a detour to avoid Filch and Mrs Norris, and collapse into my bed still wearing my robes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! 
> 
> Was travelling so a bit of a delay on the chapter, sorry! 
> 
> Also, chapters will be getting longer but the set up is prettyyyyy slow. 
> 
> Enjoy, and leave kudos if you like it!


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, I found out what the twins had been doing up in the Astronomy tower. They had put coloured cellophane over the end of the telescope, so all the astronomy students freaked out thinking Jupiter had suddenly turned bright green. Even Markus had admitted that that had been a brilliant idea at lunch. All it did for me was remind me of last night. What Ash had said. Nothing special. The words had been repeating over and over again in my head.  
It certainly didn’t help that all of breakfast I could clearly see Jade practically sitting on Ash’s lap, gushing over him and him returning her affections. It was almost as if he knew I could see them if they sat there. It was because of this distraction that I had accidentally tuned out of the current conversation that my motley crew were having.   
“What do you say Jolene?” Markus asked me.   
“Hmm? About?”   
“The party you dummy! Have you been listening at all?” I got asked by an exasperated Dianna. Gryffindors and their parties…  
“Sorry, I was just…. distracted. What about a party?”  
“Are you coming?”  
I contemplate it. Gryffindor parties were often known for being some of the best parties. Maybe it would be a good idea…get my mind off things, have a bit of fun…plus, no Gryffindor would invite anyone from Slytherin to one of their famed parties.   
I find myself nodding, a response which receives squeals from Dianna, claps from Markus and nodding from Nora, who is delved into a textbook already. From there, the conversation went into organising the party, plotting how to get firewhiskey into the school and then groans as the bell rings, signalling that I have to go to potions – luckily, with Nora and the rest of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws as opposed to last year with the Slytherins. That, at least, would save me from some of the lovey displays that were so present at the breakfast table this morning. I quickly downed the last of my coffee – I had had a night of tossing and turning – and walked with Nora down to the Dungeons.   
Snape was, of course, sneering already by the time we got in but not nearly as much as he did when he has Gryffindor in his classroom. I could hardly blame him for not enjoying the Gryffindor classes, it meant that Fred and George were there. Lessons with Fred and George were chaotic – it was probably good that they were constantly skipping or coming in late, be it because of pranking or because they had been caught up with whichever admirer had managed to catch their eye that day.  
That was another reason Markus had started a prank war with them. It had “coincidentally” started the lunch time after both of them had been flirting with Nora at breakfast. Nora, being as oblivious to romance as she was, didn’t bat an eyelid but that didn’t matter. Now, the prank war was in it’s third year. I wondered if they knew my involvement…I can’t see how they would. Either way, I hadn’t been involved in any counter-pranks. Nora nudged me and told me to start doing the prep for some of the following steps. I was blessed to have Nora as a friend as she was brilliant at potions – sometimes not even following the book and turning out better then those who followed it step by step. This was especially a blessing as I was utterly useless at the practical side of potions. I got to cutting the gurdy roots and making the dried nettles to dust as she instructed and for the rest of the lesson simply concentrated. Snape gave us 5 points each for how good our potion was, almost managing a look of approval at Nora. Almost. 

It was in the next class that my day took an utter downturn. We had DADA with the new professor, Madeye. We also had it with the Slytherin house. I had to choose my tactic, ignore him and pretend nothing was wrong? Or skip?   
The choice was obvious, I couldn’t let him be the one who stopped me from experiencing our first class with Madeye. That didn’t stop my hands from shaking, which thankfully Elle, a fellow Hufflepuff, didn’t notice as she greeted me excitedly. “Oh my gosh, Care of Magical Creatures was amazing! We got to meet bowtruckles!” She gushed. She had an adoration of all animals – and I mean all. She had nursed a spider back to health in fourth grade when it had been trampled by the others all escaping from the basilisk into the forest, she had taken on care responsibilities which quite often meant that her lunch times were taking up trying to find unicorns or pixies or the like. Each house had been split in two as to try and minimise the number of incidences with creatures this year, especially after the whole Draco-Hippogriff incident. Slimy git.   
“What in the world are bowtruckles?” I indulged her and off she went into a excited rambling of what they were and how Newt Scamander once had a particularly close one.   
While she rambled on, I found myself distracted by the red robes walking past. Of course, the Gryffindors had just had DADA. I would say it was weird for them not to have an extra house joining them but the amount of Gryffindors that took DADA was really high. Not to mention the sixth year Gryffindors had four of the most notorious pranksters in the whole school. Markus, although not as well known, wasn’t bad looking and with the prank war being in it’s third year he had become quite infamous. Then there was Lee, the twins best friend and co-conspirator. And, of course, the twins. Who, I realised, had caught me watching them walking out. One of them winked at me and I quickly looked away. “You alright?”   
I looked up at Elle. “Yeah, Markus is coming over though and I can see he’s scheming,” I fumbled, trying to ignore the fact that one of the ever popular Weasley twins had noticed me, much less winked. It wasn’t until we were inside, sitting in awe of Madeye and scribbling notes furiously in my notebook (and, of course, ignoring Ash and Jade) that I stopped replaying that wink over and over in my head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's chapter 4 of this chaos. Yes, the chapters will be getting long but at the moment it's a slower build up which is hard to do in long chapters!


End file.
